This invention relates to a steering device for an automatic suction cleaning appliance.
Suction cleaning appliances for submerged surfaces have already been proposed in which a cleaning head operates by applying lifting forces to the surface to be cleaned. Such appliances are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,434,519 and in the following U.S. patent applications: Ser. No. 480,360 filed Mar. 30, 1983, and Ser. No. 532,176 filed Sept. 14, 1983.
In using automatic cleaning appliances it has been found that at the end of a cleaning cycle there may still be a leaf or two lying on the surface to be cleaned either as a result of being disturbed during the cleaning cycle and thus being deposited elsewhere or as a result of having fallen in during a later stage of the cleaning cycle. To ensure a perfectly clean surface one then has to resort to a separate manual cleaning device.
The applicant has now found thah cleaning appliances of the kind disclosed in the abovementioned patent and pending applications can be fitted with a steering device so that they can operate in a manual cleaning mode making it unnecessary to use a separate manual appliance.